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Trying to see if me my mother-in-law is in trouble (drug related)

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jfcgtr74

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Tennessee

I'll try to give as much info as I know, as I'm trying to help my wife's mother find out what she is dealing with.

My mother-in-law is on disability. She has a male friend who recently passed away this past month who was also on disability.

Before he died, because of his health situation, my mother-in-law made the mistake of loaning him some money & giving him a handful of Lortab/Hydrocodone pills because he had taken all of his prescribed pills & still had a few days to go before he could get more from his doctor.

Obviously, being ignorant of the law is no excuse. But in all honesty, my M-I-L was acting out of kindness, felt sorry for a friend in pain, and gave him a few pills.

Now that he has died, his sister (primary caretaker) is angry & hurt, which is understandable. She found out that he was abusing his meds before he died, and is lashing out at those around him who she feels like may have contributed to his death.

Being in a critical health condition and already having been prescribed controlled substances, it's probably hearsay if she believes that friends giving him extra meds contributed to his death.

However, she is threatening to turn my mother-in-law in to the authorities, as well as anyone else in his life that may have given him pills.

Unfortunately, you don't get extra credit for being honest in this situation. When the sister asked my mother-in-law if she had given her brother meds, my M-I-L should have probably declined to answer her for legal reasons.
But she was honest with her, and told her "yes," that she did give him a Lortabs because she felt badly for him.

So I guess my question is, in the state of Tennessee, would my M-I-L still be in danger of being charged for a crime even if she wasn't selling the drugs & was simply trying to help someone?
I've heard that distribution of narcotics is a felony, even if you aren't selling. So that basically means that it's illegal to give someone pills, even if you know them & there isn't a "drug deal" involved.

My mother-in-law is obviously worried about getting in trouble, and I'm wondering what I should tell her to do that might healp set her mind at ease.

Not being a lawyer, I've simply told her not to worry about it... And if for some reason an investigator contacts her, she should probably not answer any questions until she is able to consult with an attorney. Unfortunately, being on disbaility with a fixed income, retaining a lawyer isn't a real option unless it's necessary.

Anyone have any input or advice that might help in this situation?

Thanks so much!
 


jfcgtr74

Junior Member
I just asked her, and she said that she gave him the meds around Oct 29-30, and he died the middle of the following week (Nov 4-5) of his poor medical condition, which was congenatal (sp?) heart failure.
Are we talking about the possibility of negligence here? And would that be a civil matter?

Thanks again for the help-
 

cracker

Member
Just tell her to deny it. DENY DENY DENY. If the guy was taking opiates he will test positive for them, whether she gave them to him or not. If there were no witnesses then she has no proof. Pretend like it never happened. Her handing a friend in pain a couple of lortabs did not kill him.
 

jfcgtr74

Junior Member
Just tell her to deny it. DENY DENY DENY. If the guy was taking opiates he will test positive for them, whether she gave them to him or not. If there were no witnesses then she has no proof. Pretend like it never happened. Her handing a friend in pain a couple of lortabs did not kill him.

So the fact that she admitted to his sister that she gave them to him wouldn't matter?
That should just tell you right there that my MIL may hve a hard time denying it, since she was trying to be honest.

So at this point, she should simply go into denial mode? She said knows 100% for a fact that he was taking the Lortabs prescribed by his doctor, which is why she gave him some ( she's not very sharp with legal matters, and didn't understand the harm in giving him some more of the same medicine his doctor gave him. Not an excuse, of course, but you can understand the reasoning.)

Thanks again-
 

cracker

Member
It doesn't matter if he had a perscription or not, those pills that come in that little orange bottle go to no one but the name on the bottle. Any deviation from those directions is a felony.

If your MIL denies it, and the sister says she said it, and there were no witnesses, it is all hearsay.

What if I said you stole my TV and you didn't. You wouldn't go to jail just because I said you did something.

Tell your MIL to put her honesty behind her for a while (as hard as it may be) because it may be necessary to save her butt.

I really don't think anyone is going to care if a couple of old people swapped pills if it wasn't what killed him though. Old people swap pills like kids swap marbles.
 

jfcgtr74

Junior Member
It doesn't matter if he had a perscription or not, those pills that come in that little orange bottle go to no one but the name on the bottle. Any deviation from those directions is a felony.

If your MIL denies it, and the sister says she said it, and there were no witnesses, it is all hearsay.

What if I said you stole my TV and you didn't. You wouldn't go to jail just because I said you did something.

Tell your MIL to put her honesty behind her for a while (as hard as it may be) because it may be necessary to save her butt.

I really don't think anyone is going to care if a couple of old people swapped pills if it wasn't what killed him though. Old people swap pills like kids swap marbles.
Thanks Cracker-
This is exactly what I was trying to tell her. I tried to explain that I didn't think the police would be all that interested unless they really thought she have had something to do with his death, or if they actually thought she was a dealer of some sort.

So I'll confirm with her some details. If it's true that they swapped pills, and there were no witnesses, she should get ready to deny it all the way.
 

outonbail

Senior Member
If the guy didn't die from an overdose of Lortabs, then she will not be implicated in his demise. However if she is distributing narcotics she's still committing a felony. Tell her to stop feeling sorry for people or at least stop giving them meds to ease their claimed pain.

I wouldn't advise your MIL to start lying about anything. I would tell her to just shut her pie hole and keep it shut.

If she starts lying to an investigator or anyone else she will probably give herself away and once she has been caught in a lie, her credibility will be zero and they will think she has much more to hide and lie about.

Just tell her to stop discussing the matter period!
 

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